Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember” is still, in my view, the most gripping account of the Titanic disaster ever written. First published in 1955, it has never been out of print. Those of us who have published Titanic books more recently look at its sales figures with awe and envy.

Lord’s book is many things, among them a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the events on board the ship, based in part on interviews he did with 63 survivors, including steerage passengers whose stories were ignored in 1912. Simple and chronological only on the most superficial level, “A Night to Remember” takes an imaginative approach to time and space in which hours and minutes prove extremely malleable, the ship itself seems almost infinitely complex, and the disaster assumes order and unity only from far away.

So what is it that makes the Titanic’s story so compelling a century after she sank? And, in the end, why bother? Is it really worth all the effort expended?

Certainly much of the ongoing interest in the Titanic has been sustained by classic books like Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember,” and by the equally classic film of the same name. And unquestionably the discovery of the wreck in 1985 created a surge in new interest that really hadn’t abated by the time the 1997 blockbuster cinema epic was released. And after that the fascination seemed to become self-sustaining.

But in the end, no product of the moviemaker’s art, no single book, or collection of books, can sustain within an individual the sort of connection that comes to exist for so many people who began to reach out to the doomed ship, only to find her reaching back. And that is because every individual’s connection to the Titanic IS individual.

As April 14, 2012, draws ever closer, I find myself thinking of author Walter Lord, who knew the Titanic story more intimately than perhaps anyone else on Earth. His book, A Night to Remember, remains the definitive book on the disaster.

Lord understood better than anyone that once Titanic is a part of your life, she never leaves you. His book, which was published in 1955 after Lord spent years interviewing more than 60 survivors, is responsible for creating Titanic buffs the world over, yours truly included.

More than the personal stories and the “you are there” feeling you get when you read Lord’s book, you’re confronted with a compelling list of “if onlys.”

If only Titanic had heeded the ice warnings.
If only ice hadn’t drifted so far south.
If only the lookouts had seen the iceberg sooner (or later).
If only the watertight compartments had extended higher.
If only the ship had enough lifeboats for all.
If only the Californian had come to the rescue.

As Lord often said, these “if onlys” are at the heart of the fascination with Titanic from the very beginning. As he put it, “It becomes a haunting experience to me. It’s the haunting experience of ‘If only.'”

From the moment Titanic disappeared into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, her story has held the world spellbound. As we count down to the 100th anniversary of her sinking, stories from all around the globe are once again being dusted off and re-told, and the world is remembering again the ship that we never truly forgot.

Titanic is the ultimate story –- and she’s been written about more than Noah’s Ark or the Nina, Pinta and Santa Mariacombined. The story has captivated each generation since her sinking – and she’s been featured in every form of mass media along the way – from newspaper, book, radio and film to music, television and the Internet.Historians will tell you the story endures because of the age Titanic represented so fully – and ended so completely. Sociologists will tell you it’s because of the people and our urge to put ourselves in their shoes.

For me, a confirmed Titanic buff for more than 20 years now, the story endures because of its continuing relevance to our lives today. Put simply, you mess with Mother Nature and you get the short end of the stick. You put too much faith in technology and you risk forgetting to protect yourself from the dangers they might pose.

Kristen Iversen is the author of Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction. Her forthcoming book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, will be published in June.

Daniel Allen Butler is the author of nine books and a maritime and military historian. Among his books are "Unsinkable" -- the Full Story of RMS Titanic" and "The Other Side of the Night -- the Carpathia, the Californian, and the Night the Titanic was Lost."

Janet Kalstrom became a docent at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver after a 37-year banking career. As part of her work as a docent, she dresses in period costume to play Margaret "Molly" Brown at the museum.

As part of the Denver Post's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, we've invited five experts in some aspect of the tragedy to blog for our website. Their fascination with the topic, in many ways, mirrors the enduring fascination of us all with the story of the giant oceanliner that hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Over the next month, our bloggers will provide us insights into the ship's history, the cultural context of the times and the passengers, including the indomitable Margaret "Molly" Brown of Denver who was aboard the vessel when it went down. One of our writers will even share her experience of participating in the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which sails in April from Southampton and retraces the route of the Titanic on its fateful voyage.